In 1975, one summer became a real adventure for 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain, a "spoiled, unhappy, narcissistic, self-destructive, and thoughtless" man, as the late writer and food expert wrote in his 2000 nonfiction book, "The Secret Kitchen.".
He recounted the time he spent his first summer in Provincetown, arriving on the coastal tip of Cape Cod. There, he gained experience working at several of the seaside town's now-famous restaurants, including the Lobster Pot, a favorite spot for locals and tourists alike, whose menu today boasts generously filled lobster rolls and flavorful bouillabaisse. Bourdain was also a regular at the opening of the nearby (and celebrated) Italian restaurant Ciro & Sal's, which took him under its wing.
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Bourdain's typically wild, exciting, and endless summer, similar to those he experienced in his youth, also proved a fruitful period for director and co-writer Matt Johnson ("BlackBerry," "Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie"), who used it as the subject matter for his upcoming true-life film, "Tony," out August 7 from A24.
The film stars Dominic Sessa, star of The Good Old Days, as a young Bourdain, just emerging from his teens, along with Antonio Banderas as the owner of Ciro & Sals, the restaurant that hires Bourdain, and Stavros Chalkias and The Tuner and White Lotus favorite Leo Woodall as the restaurant workers who interact with the aspiring chef.
Little is known about the upcoming nostalgic film about Bourdain beyond the first trailer, but at the 2026 Provincetown International Film Festival, Johnson, Sessa, and Woodall held a friendly, wide-ranging conversation about the Tony-winning film, moderated by Sundance Festival director (and IndieWire co-founder!) Eugene Hernandez. Fittingly for a film about a foodie like Bourdain, the cast, director, and audience members headed to the coast for a seafood dinner on the beach near the cozy, rustic Provincetown Inn.
The presentation featured two early clips of the film: one showing Bourdain (Sessa) arriving in Provincetown on the same ferry everyone in the audience (except, of course, the Cape Cod residents) took to get to the festival; the other showing Sessa and Woodall working behind the scenes in a bustling kitchen. (Johnson and the filmmakers are currently finishing up post-production work on the film.)
«"We were talking about how wonderful it was to be in Provincetown and not be filming," Johnson said. "I moved here for, I think, two months while I was working on this script, but it was really off-season… it was dark times. I think I got here at the end of February.".
This wasn't the first visit to Provincetown for any of the crew, as they filmed "Tony" there last summer. "It was the most responsive town I've ever shot a movie in. I mean that completely. Come to Toronto!" Johnson said with a laugh.
Johnson, co-writing the Kitchen Confidential adaptation with Matthew Miller, Todd Bartels, and Lou Howe, said Tony compresses three years of Bourdain's life into one summer, "not just the first summer Tony came here between his years at [Vassar College], but also the summer he came here the next... and the summer after that... All of his writing is self-reporting, so He It kind of speaks to what's happening to him, and that's something that interests me a lot as a filmmaker. In a way, it's him looking up and down at his own story, which is what's important to me, and yet he leaves out a lot of things… I'm always interested in that from a journalistic standpoint, like, what you're willing to tell us about what really happened… combined with talking to other people who were there and getting their version of what really happened. It really gives you the sense that Bourdain is simultaneously elevating and downplaying a lot of things. "That's what happened to him.".
Sessa, who is playing a real-life character for the first time on screen, said, "I was always wary of doing a biopic or portraying a real person, and I was really drawn to the freedom I had. At the time, there wasn't any footage to draw on while working on [the Bourdain film]. It helped me read his work and watch Parts Unknown and so on to get a feel for the overall atmosphere and energy. There were about four or five photographs of him… which became my main source of information.".
Johnson added, «Dom is from New Jersey, not far from where Bourdain grew up. There were so many things that were so closely related… I didn’t want him to do a lot of research. I didn’t want him to try to imitate… A lot of what he has is already innate. I didn’t want him to have to figure out, «Okay, I need to do this, I need to say things like this.» I didn’t want him to become someone who meticulously prepares a performance. I wanted him to be himself.».
As for Woodall, he's so at ease in the restaurant setting that Hernandez asked if he had any kitchen experience. "No, I didn't… but I was really excited to learn how to open oysters, which is basically all I do. It's not easy, especially when you get cocky and throw in the towel and don't even look at the oyster because I stabbed my hand on the fourth day," Woodall said. "Sal, the guy I play—it was a combination of fun and a little bit of horror, the way we shot it and the way Matt works; he wants us to take off our seatbelts and just go at it.".
Filming for "Tony" took place in Provincetown for only five of the 25 days, and Woodall said, "Honestly, that one week in Provincetown almost took my soul," to laughter from the audience. "I guess it's good I got out of there.".
Director Johnson begins his Tony Award campaign immediately after his Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie (at Neon) became one of the year's most highly acclaimed films. His 2023 film BlackBerry, a Volsque dramatization of the once-hip phone, was also among the most revered films of the year. We can't wait to see how he and his cast portray one of modern culture's most revered—and heartfelt—figures, who, ask anyone, everyone misses.
Watch the full discussion from the Provincetown International Film Festival below. "Tony" opens in theaters August 7th from A24.